Youngest daughter and grand daughter are there (courtesy tickets), its the granddaughters first game , she's loving it but wants to go to the mens game next.
Really enjoyed that today. Some hefty challenges going in and a great win in end. A few scuffels at FT between both sets of players as well. Man Utd in the cup coming up in 2 weeks.
An excellent hard-fought contest between two sides who gave their all. I heard Abby Holmes interviewed after the match and I think she called it right. We showed Durham too much respect in the first 25 minutes and it was no surprise when Durham took the lead, but we grew into the game and punished the visitors for some slack play at the back to make it 1-1 at the break. Second half we upped our game and looked much more at it. The penalty came against the run of play and conceding it was the only thing that the otherwise excellent Neve Herron did wrong all game. We looked dangerous from corners and it was no surprise when Abby Holmes forced a rebound home. A lovely little through ball released Katy Watson who left the defenders in her wake. The keeper came out, but Watson poked the ball past her and into an empty net. The drummer was annoying but by the end, the shouts of 'Blue Army' were replaced by "Where's your drummer gone?" (to the tune of Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep) The fact that Durham had 2 of our previous regular starters on their bench in Maria Farrugia and Brigit Galloway spoke voIumes about Durham's strength in depth. We were only able to name 5 subs, so reinforcing the squad is paramount if we are going to compete at the top of the table. At present, we are probably 4 players short of being able to do that. In all honesty, if you combined the best players from the two teams, you would have a team likely to mount a promotion challenge Emma Kelly became more influential in the centre of midfield as the game wore on, Liz Ejupi had a promising debut and Claudia Moan produced some vital saves. This was a battle from start to finish, with a few crunching tackles thrown in and the level of passion was epitomised by a few players from opposite sides squaring up to each other after the final whistle. Well done lasses!
If the Wear Derby had been at the SOL, I think they would have sold more tickets. Looking forward to this one. Good experience for the younger lasses. Just hope we give a good account of ourselves and it's not a cricket score. Man Utd looked really sharp against Liverpool last weekend.
I'll be there too. Free hit for the lasses and a good test of how far we've come. Praying Man Utd don't have a drummer!
